Greek-Owned Ships Transport 20% Of The World's Seaborne Cargo, Yet Contribute Next To Nothing To Greece

Der Spiegel's Julia Amalia Heyer
recently interviewed a couple of Greek shipping magnates
about what it's like to be rich in a floundering country.

Leon Patitsas, a 36-year-old heir to a shipping fortune,
tells Heyer that the state offers no security to Greece's
business class. That stance, he said is rooted in the
population's belief that capital is to blame for everything, "and
not the powerful unions that actually destroy jobs with their
unrealistic demands rather than preserving them."

But Heyer writes that Greece's shipping industry enjoys
unusual leeway when it comes to what it owes the state.

Although Greece-owned ships transport 20
percent of the world's seaborne cargo, they "usually" sail under
the flags of other countries, she says.

As a result:

...the world's largest merchant fleet hardly contributes
anything to Greece's economic performance, and shipping revenues
aren't taxed. In fact, shipping companies don't
even have to pay taxes for divisions that have nothing to do with
transporting cargo on the seas.